Dead Island Logo Censored in NA

The North American release of Dead Island will not feature the hanging corpse on the game's boxart due to the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) restrictions.

A Deep Silver representative confirmed to IGN the logo will be altered on the front of the game box, but the in-game logo will remain unchanged. The boxart and in-game logo for Dead Island will remain unchanged for its release in Europe.

The new logo does away with the hanging corpse and changes it to a zombie walking on the ground. See below:

Original, uncensored logo

Censored logo for North American boxart

The ESRB previously censored the cover for Left 4 Dead 2 back in June 2009, making Valve add additional fingers to the iconic zombie hand. The ESRB has not responded to requests for comment about the Dead Island logo at this time.

Dead Island is currently scheduled for release in 2011.

Update: The ESRB has responded with this statement:

The video game industry has set guidelines about the types of content that are appropriate in advertising and marketing materials, which includes game box art. According to those guidelines the depiction in the logo was not compliant.

We never censor or dictate in any way what type of content can be included within a game. However, a game's marketing materials are seen by an audience that is much broader than that which actually purchases the game itself, so we enforce industry-adopted guidelines as to what is suitable for inclusion in these materials.